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Breadth Electives

BME students must take at least 15 hours of breadth elective credit in one of the four options below

MINORS

Students may elect to satisfy their breadth elective requirements by completing an Institute approved minor. A list of minors can be found at http://catalog.gatech.edu/academics/minors/#minorsofferedtext. Minors are a minimum of 15 hours, although some minor courses have prerequisite courses that students will need to take as well.

PRE-HEALTH

There is no designation or track for pre-health at Georgia Tech, no pre-health minor or certificate. BME students who are pre-health, meaning they are seeking a career in the healthcare field (medical, dental, pharmacological, etc.), will take the same curriculum as all the other BME students, with the exception of their Chemistry courses. The suggested schedule for the current degree requirements for students following the pre-health breath electives is listed here: 4 year plan pre-health

Students who are not pursuing a pre-health degree will take the following Chemistry classes:

CHEM 1211K, General Chemistry (with lab), four credits

CHEM 1315, Survey of Organic Chemistry, three credits

Students who are pursuing a pre-health degree will take the following Chemistry classes:

Pre-health students also are required to have taken two semesters of English, two semesters of Calculus, two semesters of Physics with lab, and two semesters of Biology with lab prior to matriculating into a U.S. medical school. The two semester Biology requirement can be satisfied in the BME curriculum with BMED 3100, Systems Physiology, BMED 3110, Quantitative Engineering Physiology Lab I, BMED 3600, Cellular and Molecular Physiology Systems, and BMED 3610, Quantitative Engineering Physiology Lab II.

Georgia Tech Pre-Health Advising

Students interested in pre-health should become familiar with the pre-health website: http://www.prehealth.gatech.edu. Georgia Tech also has a Director of Pre-Health Advising. The advisor works with Tech students interested in health related careers. For students who are pre-health, please sign up for the pre-health listserve. To join the pre-health listserv, please visit lists.gatech.edu/sympa/ , search for “pre-health” and sign up for the pre-health listserv (pre-health@lists.gatech.edu) to keep up with the latest pre-health issues and workshops. Here is information on making an appointment with the pre-health advisor: www.prehealth.gatech.edu/individual-advising.

RESEARCH OPTION

Students cannot use research to satisfy the Research Option requirement for the breadth electives, and also to satisfy depth elective credit. Research must be used for one or the other. If students are using the Research Option to satisfy breadth elective credit, they will need to fulfill their 12 hours of depth electives by taking classes. For more information on the Research Option, go here: http://undergradresearch.gatech.edu/research-option

If students are using the Research Option to fulfill their 15 required hours of breadth electives, they can do research anywhere at Georgia Tech. Their research does not have to be in the engineering department, or in engineering at all. To complete the Research Option, students must do at least nine hours of research for either credit or pay. They will also take two thesis writing courses, LMC 4701 and LMC 4702. If students complete the Research Option by doing less than the 15 hours of required breadth electives, they can use any elective credit hours to substitute towards the 15 hours. So, for example, a student does six hours of research for credit, is awarded PURA for one semester and does three hours for pay, takes the two LMC courses and writes the thesis. In this scenario, the student has satisfied the requirements for the Research Option, and has a total of eight hours of credit. The student will still need seven hours of credit in other courses to achieve the 15 required hours for breadth elective credit.

CERTIFICATES

Students may elect to satisfy their breadth elective requirement by completing a certificate. A list certificates can be found here. For certificates less than 15 hours, students can use any other course to satisfy the remaining needed credit hours, including research. Certificates are a minimum of 12 hours, although some minor courses have prerequisite courses that students will need to take as well.